Articles Tagged with wearing your seatbelt

Seatbelts are the single most effective piece of life-saving equipment in modern automobiles,  helping protect thousands of motorists against severe personal injuries in car accidents every year.   Researchers at Emory are making good use of a grant to study seatbelt usage rates in Georgia and how they can be expanded.

Researchers at the Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory received a grant of more than $300,000 from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. The grant has been made to encourage researchers to monitor seatbelt usage rates across Georgia and track the rates of distracted driving. Understanding these issues will provide researchers the information they need to develop strategies to increase seatbelt use thereby preventing auto accidents.

Seatbelt usage rates in Georgia are on the higher side, but could always be better.  According  to the researchers, seatbelt rates in Georgia increased from 87.6% in 2023 to 88.8% in 2024. Georgia motorists have gotten better at buckling up over the past few decades, thanks to the awareness efforts of transportation authorities and strict enforcement of existing seatbelt laws.  However, there is always room for improvement.  Seatbelts are the first line of defense against major personal injuries when a person is involved in a car accident.  A person who is safely buckled in is less likely to be smashed against the windshield or against the interior of the car, thereby making it less likely that he or she will sustain serious or life-threatening personal injuries.